Every year Great Britain’s Head of the River race attracts a large number of competitors and every year the number of international crews grows. This year the event – for men’s eights only – attracted crews from the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Switzerland, Portugal, France, Croatia and the Netherlands.
Despite the high calibre of international crews, local British club crew Leander managed to be the overall winners. The Leander crew, however, boasted a whole swag of international athletes led by men’s pair powerhouse Peter Reed with fellow senior national team members, Alex Partridge, Alex Gregory, Matt Langridge, Dan Ritchie and coxswain Phelan Hill.
Leander finished in a time of 16:50 over the 6.8km course which winds its way, always on the ebb tide, on the River Thames from Mortlake to Putney – the same course that was recently used for the Oxford vs Cambridge Boat Race. Second overall, and just three seconds back, were Leander’s perennial rivals, Molesey. Molesey also had their share of British national team members including Reed’s pairs partner Andrew Triggs Hodge.
The Czech Republic came in third with a crew that included World Champion single sculler Ondrej Synek and the members of their successful men’s four. This place earned them the ‘Overseas Entrants Trophy.’ A second Czech Republic crew finished fifth with Leander lightweights – including national team members of the lightweight men’s four – coming in fourth. Spain was sixth.
This event marks the end of the winter season and rowers enjoyed mild, overcast weather with spots of spring sun and bumpy water calming down as the day went on. Press Officer James Felt noted that the weather was unusually good for this time of year. “The nice weather probably made for near record crowds,” said Felt who estimated that thousands of spectators lined the banks of the course.
A total of 398 boats competed in this head race starting one at a time, head race style, at 10 second intervals. These numbers make it the largest single boat type rowing race in the world with nearly every rowing club in Great Britain entering at least one boat. 
Felt noted: “It was a great occasion with over 3500 athletes going afloat and racing and getting ashore with professionalism, competence and efficiently and with enjoyment and a sense of achievement with Olympic gold medallists to complete novices in the same race.”
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